Features

• Scrutiny by the People
• By: Jonathan Walters
• Washington State is making a big push to get citizens more involved in the performance auditing process.

• Pension Pressures
• By: Penelope Lemov
• These are threatening times for retirement funds and retirees.

• Rx For a Headache
• By: Ellen Perlman
• States are experiencing a lot of pain in switching seniors out of state programs and into the Medicare Part D drug plan.

• Honey, Our House is Historic!
• By: Christopher Swope
• Buildings from the mid-20th century are becoming eligible for landmark status. Local governments are trying to decide which are worth preserving.

• Against the Grain
• By: Josh Goodman
• Governors are finding success in the unlikeliest places. They're doing it by choosing boldness over caution.

• Judging the Judges
• By: Zach Patton
• Performance measures are coming to the tradition-bound world of state courts.

• Wired to Win
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• The 2006 campaign is being fought with digital weapons--and candidates aren't always at the controls.

Up Front

• Extended Contract
• By: Rob Gurwitt
• The hot conservative issues of the 1990s are migrating to state ballots.

• Turnabout Tale
• By: Rob Gurwitt
• After losing a GOP primary bid for lieutenant governor, Nebraska state auditor Kate Witek is seeking reelection--as a Democrat.

• Pupusa Politics
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• It's impractical to ban street vendors and difficult even to restrict them.

• Reload and Fire
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• The NRA's list of agenda items was getting a bit thin--until it found some juicy new ones.

• The Date-Checking Game
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• Internet relationships are often fraudulent and sometimes dangerous. But policing them is difficult.

• Error Trail
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• Fancy new voting machines work pretty well if everyone knows how to use them. In much of the country, that's still a big if.

• How Green Is He Really?
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• Arnold Schwarzenegger's first term has pleased environmentalists. It's the second term they're worried about.

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• By: Alan Greenblatt

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• By: Alan Greenblatt

The Business of Government

• Soft on Sprawl
• By: Alex Marshall
• A popular planning book praises sprawl and ignores the mess left by misguided transportation policies.

• A Very Long Haul
• By: Ellen Perlman
• It's taken a dozen years and may take a few more as states struggle to put IT into their child welfare systems.

• Low Grade: Wis. Audits Its Job Growth Programs
• By: Zach Patton

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• By: Zach Patton

• Reform Storm: Governors Feel the Heat on Health IT
• By: Alan Greenblatt

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• By: Alan Greenblatt

• On the Slopes of Texas
• By: Elizabeth Daigneau
• "Fake" parks are the newest breed of sports venues.

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• By: Elizabeth Daigneau

• Keeping the Wild in the West
• By: Tom Arrandale
• Cattle ranchers may have to think the unthinkable--zoning open space to keep developers from eating it all up.

• Go Global, Act Local
• By: William Fulton
• The best trade missions aren't really trade missions at all. Increasingly, the goal is not to sell or trade but to learn.

Training Opportunities

• Accelerating Economic Growth and Vitality
• This white paper describes how developing competencies in five key area can help public safety agencies more effectively do their jobs in the face of extremely important and difficult sets of issues.
• Crime Prediction and Prevention


• FutureStructure: A New Framework